


toy gun, real gun

by OmTivi



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Gen, Persona 5 Spoilers, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-16 13:11:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21508486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OmTivi/pseuds/OmTivi
Summary: Goro finds himself in the dark streets of Shibuya after losing the fight in the engine room.
Relationships: Akechi Goro & Iwai Munehisa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36





	toy gun, real gun

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to aether for the help in ironing out the kinks!
> 
> (If you're wondering: I do have Iwashu being a thing in mind while writing this.)

It's late at night. Or early morning, he can't really tell with his phone dead and the streets deserted like this. He's been limping from dark alley to dark alley for a while now, trying to find his bearings. He hasn't had much success with that. Goro might have an extensive knowledge about the dark underbelly of people's cognitions, but he's clueless about the dark underbelly of Tokyo. He's always stuck to well-lit streets as much as he can. Can't risk a kidnapping or a mugging, can he? It would piss Shido off. Not even in a good way at that.

He doesn't even know why he's still alive. Maybe he doesn't want to be dead as much as he thought he did. Maybe that fire in him he's been stoking for years out of spite is still going too strong for the Metaverse not to recognise his will to live.

Goro's tired. Also furious at the attic trash and his entourage of "caring" friends, but at his core Goro's just exhausted. He's not sure he still has it in him to keep fighting, to keep up appearances, to keep going on when everything he has worked for has been undone by a group of ragtag teenagers. They aren't even better than him. Not smarter, not stronger, not more cunning ...

They just have each other. And perhaps Goro is too bitter about that fact for someone who's accepted the fact that he will always only have himself to rely on.

Too busy pitying himself, Goro doesn't realise he's reached a more familiar Shibuya street until he walks right into someone.

"Sorr--" he starts to mumble, peeking up from behind his bangs to glance at whoever it was that couldn't step aside in an empty street.

Oh. It's that ex-yakuza Kurusu associates with.

One of the older man's eyebrows disappears behind the brim of his hat. "Hello there, Detective. Didn't peg you to be the type to go past curfew on a school night." Surprise is clear in his voice, and amusement too.

How _dare_ he be amused. Goro glares at the man, but the gaze that meets his eyes is steady and unwavering. Before he can even consider caving in and putting up his public facade, however, the man nods towards the front of his shop. "Sit down."

Goro wants to refuse. The man radiates quiet danger and besides he can't spare any time dilly-dallying with another friend of Kurusu's. He must get away from here and from this man soon.

Unfortunately, he _is_ exhausted. And the man's persistent gaze is quite compelling, in that way certain people command your obedience. Goro's familiar with them: Shido is of a similar breed. So he does sit down, knees pulled up in front of his chest in a gesture that is definitely not protective. The man nods in approval, humming around the lollipop in his mouth.

"Want one?" The older man hands Goro a still-wrapped lollipop, unearthed from under his huge grey coat. "Y'look like you were ready to pass out."

Offering him candy? Seriously?

The man shrugs a shoulder. "This calls for a smoke. I've quit, though. So." He rolls the lollipop stick between his fingers, twirling it in front of Goro's face. "D'ya want it or not?"

Goro takes it.

"Heard about you dying in that other world from the brat just yesterday. Sounded so distraught, him. Must've beat himself up for failing to save ya or somethin'." Goro watches the man sit down beside him. He keeps an eye on him in case he makes any sudden movement, but he seems relaxed so far.

The hole in his coat doesn't escape Goro's notice, though. That is definitely a bullet hole. This man is no ordinary shopkeeper. Does he have a real gun hidden behind that huge coat?

At the expectant look the man gives him, Goro forces out a dry laugh. "That is Kurusu all right. Always looking to save everyone." He can't take the man's intense gaze anymore and turns away to look into the drab wall across Untouchable. "Even those who don't deserve it."

The man's hum is gravelly and rough, just like his appearance. "But you're here." He raises an eyebrow. "Alive."

"No thanks to him," Goro spits. Is he insinuating Kurusu managed to save Goro after all?

To Goro's surprise, the man nods. "Someone like you couldn't have survived this long from relying on other people's help." A beat where the lollipop stick between his lips changes sides. "Just saying you probably did deserve to be 'saved'." Goro can hear the quotes around the word _saved_ , as if the older man doesn't agree with its use but decides to play along anyway.

Goro frowns. "What do you know about me?" He hopes his voice only sounds accusing through his gritted teeth and doesn't betray his nerves.

"Enough." The man leans back against the wall, crossing his arms. "That you're an orphan, and you have blood on your hands."

Is the chill Goro feels a drop in temperature, or is it fear of what this man can do with that knowledge? He doesn't look like an upstanding citizen either, surely he won't report him to the authorities? No. Goro has more to be afraid of in what the man himself can do to him now, right here, in the back alleys of Shibuya where no one is looking. Does he know that the blood on Goro's hands includes Kurusu's? Will he care about that?

If it wasn't clear before, it has been made clear now that this man is a predator by how he seems to have sensed Goro's panic. "Easy there, Detective." The chuckle that comes from him is a surprise. "I don't judge."

Is that platitude? Goro narrows his eyes. "People say that all the time without meaning it."

The lollipop stick jutting out of the man's mouth moves. "I guess it's more accurate to say I _can't_ judge." Before Goro can press for more, he continues. "I'm a killer, too. Was." He gives a little shake of his head.

And? What does that matter, now they are in this killer club of two?

As if he could tell Goro was just about to open his mouth, the man turns to look at him. "A heady feeling, isn't it? To have someone else's life in your hand? To _crush_ it?"

Goro swallows and nods.

"For someone who's always been helpless before, that power is addictive." The man pauses again, twirls the lollipop in his mouth again. He nods, as if he could see affirmation in Goro's expression. "I know. So I don't care even if one of those people you've killed--well, you thought you've killed--was someone I'm very fond of."

Fuck. Fuckfuckfuck. So he does know.

Goro can feel the man's gaze moving away from him. "What I'm saying is, I'm no better than you. Yet here I am." He gestures to the side, where Untouchable's front door is. "The brat said you were so hell-bent on being the martyr. As if dying was the best thing you could do." He stands up, and for a moment Goro braces for--something. For a danger that doesn't come.

Goro stays seated, looking up at the grey-coated man who is not even facing him. Goro can't see his expression.

"Maybe you're just suicidal, maybe you're an irredeemable killer, but even so." He moves towards the door to his shop and opens it. Before he walks in, however, he turns to look at Goro. "Even bad people can do better. Maybe you'll always be bad, but you can definitely do better." Is that a smile the man's giving him? "That's what the brat taught me."

With that, the door closes behind him.

**Author's Note:**

> This started from my need for Iwai/Akechi, but nothing that guarantees the tag happens in the fic so that's why it has the platonic tag instead. Unfortunately. I pray for more writing motivation so I can do an _actual_ Iwai/Akechi next time (and soon).
> 
> The joke is I kin both Iwai and Akechi so Iwakechi is just selfcest.


End file.
